For many mornings on my way into the Chicago Tribune newsroom, I passed by an Arthur Miller quote engraved in the lobby: “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.” That sentiment, as sturdy as the travertine … Read more
Whistleblowers from Serbia, Bosnia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands had just shared intensely emotional stories with an international audience of journalists, activists, prosecutors, and judges. We almost lost English translation to the tears of the interpreter as a … Read more
I often feel my job is to trick people into paying attention to the world around them. Beauty, light, and composition are my tools to draw one’s eye into the events and issues many would rather avoid. When I started … Read more
Focus is one of journalism’s most important skills. It’s that separating the wheat from the chaff thing. In an age of distraction we need THAT skill now more than ever. (Is anyone going to explain why Richard Nixon’s 1972 campaign … Read more
As journalists continue to critique their coverage of the presidential election, Nieman Reports is publishing an ongoing series of articles exploring the issues, challenges and opportunities—from newsroom diversity to fake news to community news outlets—that will inform reporting going forward. Read more
There was a whole lot that went right in 2016 campaign coverage. If you were reading Slate’s Jamelle Bouie, PRRI’s Robert Jones, or New America’s Lee Drutman, you understood how race, identity, and our changing culture were deeply shaping this … Read more
I watched election-night coverage on television with acquaintances from Europe, who seemed flummoxed by what was unfolding on the screen. I spent a lot of time explaining the Electoral College and unpacking why I thought that Donald Trump was getting … Read more
I’ve seen this bad movie before—in fact, far too many times: strongmen, whether vicious kingpins or populist leaders bullying reporters in either my native Mexico or across Latin America, authorities threatening reporters by cutting off state advertising money, muzzling them … Read more
Donald Trump’s precedent-breaking refusal to allow a small pool of journalists to cover his travels as president-elect has revealed some common ground in our otherwise fractured republic. Good, Trump supporters tell me. The press deserves to be treated badly after … Read more
In covering the local election season in Dare County, North Carolina–best known as the home of the Outer Banks–journalists can’t be accused of paying too much attention to an unending parade of polls. For starters, there were no publicly released … Read more
